Fed Up With Sick Tropheus

[disenga]

I bought 15 Tropheus Ikola Kaiser about 2.5 months ago and for the first 2 months everything was fine.  Doing regular water changes (40-50% every 1-2 weeks) and feeding only HBH veggie flake - the same food as the breeder I bought them from - as well as romaine lettuce clipped to the glass.  Everyone was very healthy.  Lots of activity.

Then I noticed one fish swimming abnormally and with a bloated belly and it has all gone down hill from there.  I quit feeding the lettuce right away since that was really the only variable I could identify that might have been different from what they were used to.  I pulled the sick fish out and treated with Metronidizole and Praziquantel in a separate 5 gallon tank.  The first fish got better, after a few days and I returned it to the big tank after 4 days of treatment.  Then 3 more fish got sick.  These fish all ended up dying after a few days in the hospital tank.  Since then I've lost 2 more. 

Now the rest of the are swimming listlessly or sitting on the bottom.  Some have stringy white stool trailing them, but none have the bloated belly that I saw on the first sick fish. 

Tank is 75 gallons.  Also in the tank are 2 young trios of Cynotiliapia Afra, 5 Telmatochromis Vittatus, and maybe 12 small Julidochromis Marleri.

I've bought Tropheus colonies 3 times over the last 20 years and this is the way it always ends.  I just don't get it.  I've kept hundreds of cichlids but never had this problem with any other genus.  WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!?!

[Marty]

Tropheus have very long intestinal tracts.  It sounds like are either having a problem with the food, or you are feeding too much and they're eating food in the tank after it has spoiled.  Make sure that you don't have decorations where food is getting stuck.

[disenga]

Thanks Marty.  That is a possibility which I considered as well.  I have always fed them very cautiously, erring on the side of less versus more.  I removed much of the decorative rock I had piled in the tank and added more mechanical filtration when I pulled the first sick fish out about a month ago. 

[SKISWETPETS]

Im wondering if that caused the problem i just had with almost all my fish i just recently got. Both Ndiwe Fire Blue's died and I believe all of the Ngara White Tails. The Yellow Labs on the other hand are doing ok yet?  I just really didn't need this problem right now.

[Ron]

Wish I knew the answer too, as my experiences have been similar. Bought some almost-adults and bred them. Then thought "this wasn't that hard", so I bought a couple more colonies and had similar experiences where everything starts falling apart for no good reason.

I took a few years break, but just recently climbed on the horse again to give it another shot and do some things differently from last time. Only time will tell how well round two goes.

[Nick]

I have no personal experience but from what I have read, with new Tropheus and as a preventative, soak one of their meals in some Metronidizole for 10 min. or so. I have done it with mine. I don't know if it helped or not but plenty of people on trophs.com that seem to think it does. This method will introduce the medication their system internal instead of having to treat the entire tank. Many believe that even after the fish are settled and healthy it helps to periodically dose some food to help prevent outbreaks.
Once again. No personal experience but I its worth a shot in the future.

[auratus]

When you have Trophes ALL WAYS HAVE METRO on hand!!  Check out Trophs.com for details,  But prevention is key feed primailly spirullina algae flake ( not a flake that the 5th ingredeient is algae the first! )  Feeding Romaine lettuce is good, keep water HARD!  add some iodized sea salt  some epsom salt and keep water clean ans circulated very well . A sandy bottom is what you want.  Trophs are hard !best to not have wild caughts F2 s even better than F1s  for ease of keeping.  Good luck even seasoned keepers sometimes get into trouble

[Ron]

Some reading that might interest you if you haven't seen it:
http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=164

[disenga]

Thanks to all that have posted here so far.  I am down to my last 3 tropheus now.  The remaining 3 however, appear surprisingly healthy and are begging for food at the glass as they used to.  I think I've learned a few lessons this time around, and I certainly appreciate the advice I've received here.

I lost about half of the fish while attempting to treat lethargic individuals in a hospital tank.  Eventually with so many losses I ended up treating the entire 75 gal.  I continued to lose fish, about 1 per day, until 2 days ago. 

While I'm stocked up on metro now, it may be some time before I get up the nerve to gamble on another colony.  Though something about these fish just keeps me coming back for more.  If and when I do, I'm doing a bare-bottom, single-species tank, and I really like the preventative food-dosing idea as well.  I tried this strategy, but only after the fish were sick and the sick ones didn't eat any of it!

[auratus]

Sucks dude , happened to me too .pick yourself up dust off learn from your lessons Metro is a miracle worker if used right .  I lost most of my colony of T Brichardi Bolombora  but my new colony of Chimpibi is breedin and doing well not one lost my colony of Bolombora is small but holing on and starting to breed again  rise to the Troph chalange you will suceed !

[Michael Zebrowski]

It helps to avoid feeding new tropheus for at least one week after obtaining them.  On occasion, the stress of transport will cause a fish's digestive system to shut down temporarily, and any new feeding will then accumulate without proper digestion occuring.  This can result in a proliferation of excess intestinal bacteria; the resultant high level of toxic bacterial waste products cause kidney damage and resultant loss of function; hence the bloat.

Unfortunately, we don't know this has occured until the fish begins spitting out food and cessation of feeding.  By then it is usually too late as the kidney damage is irreversible.

Resume very light feeding for the next 2 weeks until all fish are showing the normal digestion process.
This is not a 100% means of avoidance, but has proven a worthwhile process when working with most wild and F-1 african fish, notably Tropheus and west africans of the genera Benitochromis, Pelvicachromis and Nanochromis. 

Fish can easily go without food for a week or so, and the addition of metronidazole to food as a prophylaxis is certainly beneficial when feeding is resumed.

Good luck,

Mike Z.